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stereotypes

It’s no secret that Silicon Valley employs many more men than women in tech jobs. What’s much harder to agree on is why.

The recent anti-diversity memo by a now former Google engineer has pushed this topic into the spotlight. The writer argued there are ways to explain the gender gap in tech that don’t rely on bias and discrimination – specifically, biological sex differences. Setting aside how this assertion would affect questions about how to move toward greater equity in tech fields, how well does his wrap-up represent what researchers know about the science of sex and gender?

As 2016 comes to an end, the editors take a look back at the most read posts of the year. Some are quickly becoming classics, while others tackle new research or cover discussions important to the field. Take a look for yourself.

When it comes to prejudice, it does not matter if you are smart or not, or conservative or liberal, each group has their own specific biases. In a recent study, psychologists show that low cognitive ability (i.e., intelligence, verbal ability) was not a consistent predictor of prejudice. Cognitive ability, whether high or low, only predicts prejudice towards specific groups. The results are published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Since the classic “Princeton trilogy” studies began in 1933, social psychologists have assessed and catalogued White Americans’ stereotypes of Black Americans. The value of this work is clear: if we want to reduce the application of pernicious stereotypes to individuals, it’s useful to know what those stereotypes are likely to be.

A few years ago, I had my first conflict with a colleague. It seemed trivial: we were arguing over toys. While it may have seemed like we were acting like the children who play with them, the conversation was much bigger than toys. It was about gender bias and inequality.

Negative stereotypes about women’s emotionality have persisted throughout history, leading to many damaging myths about their decision-making capacities in the social, professional, and political sphere. Historically, women’s emotionality was also considered to undermine their ability to make moral decisions. Women were often viewed as morally inferior to men because they based moral judgments on emotion rather than logic. In stark contrast to this early view, we now know that self-conscious moral emotions, like guilt, are critical to moral judgment and moral behavior (